Hello everyone ! Here is something I wanted to try since a long time ago (about 6 month lol) I'm a huge fan of the Metroid universe (even thought I only played the prime trilogy and the ds game called hunters I think :/)

Anyway ! For now it's only a test so gime some feedback ! Enjoy !

Planet Aether : Surface

Mission time : 00.00.00 (cycles)

Explanation : from what I understood cycles works like percentage, I simplified evrything so quickly

Month/12 . Days/30 . Hours/100

For example 00.00.50 is the equivalent of 12 hours when it reaches 100 I had 1 to the middle number (now that I think about this month seems useless but well I Might find a way to use it ^^ also time may not be accurate)

Oh also, Ridley's size doesn't matter or else it's simply going to be too hard for me.

The crash was terrible, it was a miracle she managed to even slow her ship enough to not hit the ground at the speed of sound, she could see black smoke from the cockpit, this definitely didn't look good.

She had never seen this kind of storm, her mission log never specified that she might encounter the atmospheric equivalent of Hell on her way.

Well at least the outside seemed safe, she could start her investigation.

Mission time : 00.00.02

Why ? Why did he have to be sent on this pathetic planet ? The scouts reported that they had found massive amounts of phazon and some alien technology, as if it was so important to require his presence.

At least he would be able to get some rest ... rest it made him feel slightly seek each time he thought about his condition.

At least he would have some distraction for the moment, he reaches the planet, Aether ...

But something was wrong, the atmosphere, for a moment he could swear he saw something change, he checked his indicators but he saw nothing suspicious.

Mission time : 00.00.2

Samus had a bad feeling, since she started exploring the planet the only trace of soldiers she found was a destroyed outpost and ... zombies ?

Some sort of parasite or a symbiote, she was surprises that it managed to get throught their armor but what really caught her attention was how it was using the bodies of the soldiers as a puppet.

Just a second ago all of them were lifeless, she analysed at least five different bodies and she found nothing, it just appeared like this, out of nowhere.

Foolish, as if they had the capacity to kill her ... were they defending something ?

Mission time : 00.00.06

Ridley opened his eyes, he was alive, this wasn't really a surprise, however his personal ship was damaged and now this was very humiliating. Something else was wrong ... the ground it wasn't right ...

Ridley carefully got out of his ship and then he understood, he was just lucky enough that his ship landed on a cliff and not a few hundreds meters further downward.

He tried to activate his communicator but it was useless, he received absolutely nothing. Ridley heard something, thunder ? He looked at the sky and at this moment he clearly saw it, the sky switching from purple to grey.

Unless he could find a way to reach the pirate base on this planet or to cross this storm with his own resources he was trapped here.

Ridley looked around him, he saw doors, and they were working, so it meant that something was still alive on this planet.

Mission time : 00.00.09

Agon Wastes, for some reason Samus simply couldn't picture a desert, not with this kind of atmosphere. The sky announced rain but it seemed like time itself was in a loop.

Something else felt off, it wasn't in Agon Wastes but somewhere else on the planet.

Mission time : 00.00.09

Ridley flew over the cliffs, he had to figure out where he was, the team on this planet said they had installed a base in a desert, so far the only thing he saw was a great forest but something else caught his attention, a great ... flying ? Island ? It didn't look natural and the pirates couldn't have built such a thing.

He couldn't simply fly so far no, there had to be another way, perhaps at the base of the roots ? Ridley stopped next to the closest.

He was right, there was a door and it was still powered, sadly he couldn't manage to interact with it the "right" way, he thought about destroying it for a moment but the last thing he needed was-

He felt a sting on his shoulder, ridley turned round, he heard something familiar. A wasp, in fact wasps.

Stupid creatures, he burned them, turned them into ashes, he didn't gain any pleasure though. He missed a good fight, a fight in which he would risk his own life.

Ridley went back to the door ... if he destroyed it he might trigger a trap, it wasn't simply meant to stop something from entering or exiting, it was placed here to allow the entrance.

Fine, he would allow himself, it looked like a rather old, hacking his way through would be easy. After a few minutes the mechanism finally moved and he could get inside.

He was right, inside the root he found an elevator, seeing such technology mixed with such a primitive construct disturbed him.

He activated the elevator and reached the top in a few seconds, the environment didn't change too much, though there were more traces of technology here.

Obviously everything around here was still operational, so who was taking care of this whole place ?

Finally ridley reached a greater room, at the center of the room he immediately noticed the bodies, those creatures had been killed recently, very recently.

He looked around him, searching from the signs of a battle or anything as close from a conflict and while he was doing his research he discovered come sort of cocoons. They weren't made by the creatures, too big to be eggs.

"You wear the mark of the scavengers"

If he didn't know how to hold back this new form of life would probably be dead. He examined it, he didn't see any weapon, no armor, no tool or anything useful to defend itself.

"Wh- ... what are you ?"

"I am a luminoth, one of the inhabitants of this planet and those-" he pointed at the cocoons with his hand "are all the inhabitants, at least the ones still alive"

The luminoth didn't say anything else, they weren't scared.

"Why are they ... like this ?"

"We are waiting the end of the war, a war which will decide the fate of this universe"

Ridley laughed, it was ridiculous "A war ? What war ? As far as I can see your technology is so pathetic that it can't even stop a minor hacking program"

"I do not old it against you, your people is still unaware of the danger lurking in the shadows "

"Cut your nonsense, what danger ?"

The luminoth "frowned", it seemed annoyed for once "You wouldn't believe me, you should see by yourself and then take your own decision ... go to Agon Wastes, your people created an outpost over here, they are about to make a mistake" they showed another door which was already opened.

Ridley had nothing to do here, but at least now he knew where he shoud look.

"Before you leave, I have to warn you, this world has two sides, it is highly unstable, if you happen to find yourself stuck in a dark world resembling this one, do NOT move away from the light and also ... you will find a ally over here, a warrior who, just like you, fell from the sky"

"Another warrior ? Someone else crashed here ?"

"Yes, I can feel her presence around you"

"Her presence ? ... Samus ?!"

"So you know her, I hope you two will help us, the world need-"

Ridley left the room in the direction indicated by the luminoth, he had someone to kill.

Mission time : 00.00.18

Samus managed to reach the place where the pirates were producing their energy from the phazon. She killed most of what remained from their forces, apparently the "thing" did the rest of the work.

The same thing who managed to make her lose most of her equipment, it was here, training the phazon in the room ... food ? A way to become stronger ?

She jumped down and prepared her weapon, the thing stopped, the phazon was gone, completely drained. And there the thing stood in front of her, a perfect mirror yet a few details remained.

Samus expected an attack but instead something completely different happened, a wall exploded and the last thing she wanted to see at the moment appeared.

Ridley.

Samus was hesitant, the pirate general was supposed to be dead, she killed him or at least she thought so, she wanted to point her a weapon at the new cible but then the thing might attack.

The three of them were stuck in a loop.

Mission time : 00.00.18

Two of them, there was two of them, one he clearly recognised, the other ... completely different yet a copy of the hunter.

When he reached the outpost he only found death and destruction, it was a pirate, barely alive who managed to whisper "hunter", "phazon" , "danger".

He didn't waste anytime and reached the room even if he had to break a few doors on his way but now all his haste was gone, he found another problem.

The blue hunter laughed and shot at the other who dodged but it didn't stop here the blue hunter also shot at him.

Ridley didn't have the time to dodge, he attempted to block the shots with his body, he thought his armor was heavy enough to block most weapons but here it was different, indeed he blocked the shots but his skin melted ... radiations ?

Ridley lunged at the blue hunter and pierced it's armor using his tail, a blue light came out from the wound, this thing wasn't Samus, ot couldn't be human.

Ridley dashed backwards so he could analyse the situation, it was hard to say but he was vulnerable.

He had to call this thing differently but for now it would be the blue hunter.

He heard a familiar sound, a missile, the blue hunter was the target and as it was focused on him it didn't dodge and was directly hit the projectile.

"you will find an ally over here"

Stupid, idiot, he had no ally, the situation didn't matter ! Samus Aran was his enemy ! His nemesis !

Samus never found herself in such a situation, two enemies at the same time, why not, but two enemies which aren't even working together ?

This was new, from what she managed to analyse the thing had a perfect, even improved, version of her weaponry.

She noticed how ridley was affected by it's weapons, his armor was pierced with only a few shots so right now he wasn't necessarily the main threat.

Most efficient option, kill the thing first, then deal with Ridley.

Most efficient option, kill the blue hunter first, then deal with the true hunter.

As Samus kept shooting at the blue hunter while it was destabilized Ridley grabbed what left of a pirate console and threw it at the blue hunter sending it crashing straight into a wall.

Samus stopped firing, she stood in position, waiting to see if the thing was still alive after being crushed like this.

For a moment there was no sound but then the console which had been thrown by Ridley came back to him, the blue hunter had somehow created a shield made out of pure energy, it's appearance changed, now both of them could clearly see light emanating from the thing.

It jumped in the air and turned into some sort of ball, Ridley and Samus dodged away right before the blue hunter came crashing right where they stood a second as a meteor.

Ridley took cover behind one of the reactors as the blue hunter changed it's method of attack now it's shots were scattering, obviously it lacked the precision of Samus but the thing was way faster than the true hunter.

Ridley changed his method of attack, he didn't care if his temporary ally was injured after All, he created a swarm of missiles but just like the console the blue hunter deviated all of them with it's shield.

He didn't have enough fire power at the moment but Samus did.

Samus barely dodged part of the swarm of missiles deflected by the shield, she didn't expect this to happen either.

"HUNTER !" It was Ridley "WHY AREN'T YOU USING YOUR MISSILES ?"

Obviously he was talking about the Super Missile.

"I can't" she answered seemingly angering the dragon.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T ?"

"Because I lost-" the thing didn't let them the time to talk, it was charging something, Samus recognised the sound "TAKE COVER !"

The thing fired a modified yet still familiar version of the Super Missile, or was it a normal missile ? Samus couldn't judge but at this rate one thing was sure it was evolving very quickly.

"WE NEED SOMETHING TO PIERCE IT'S SHIELD ! FIND A SOLUTION !" Yelled the dragon.

No Super Missile ?! And what did she say ?! SHE LOST IT ?! In another situation Ridley would be laughing but at this time it was just annoying, for once he wants his arch enemy to use the darned weapon she can't !

If he couldn't reach his target from a distance then he would have to hit it directly.

"DISTRACT IT !"

Samus had a small idea of what Ridley was preparing, she didn't have her usual weapons but she could use another method.

She morphed into a ball and rolled around the thing, it looked confused for a moment, it had never seen this form after all, Samus dropped a few bombs around it, the thing tried to use it's shield but it didn't work, the bombs pierced directly and hit the target destabilising it.

Then out of nowhere Ridley's tail pierced through it's thorax, for once they heard something different than a sinister laugh, a cry of pain. Samus transformed back and approached from the thing impaled on Ridley's tail.

The energy emanating from the thing seemed to be out of control, Samus made a quick scan, they had to get away now, obviously Ridley understood immediately and threw the blue hunter at the other end of the room.

It worked as planned expect for what looked like a suicide attempt, the blue hunter exploded breaking all the phazon containers in the room along with the rested of the equipment.

"What a mess"

Ridley heard the hunter raising her weapon at him, he didn't care, at the moment she had no way to damage him.

"Please, do not try to look dangerous it's too cute"

"What are you doing here ? I killed you on Tallon IV" She didn't have to remind him about THAT.

"I was repaired and sent to Aether, apparently we found new weapons here, but it looks like you came here before me and ... well you have done quite a nasty piece of work"

"The thing was here before me, and if you want to know everything I was unaware that your pirates were present on this planet. I was sent to investigate after we lost communication with soldiers"

"You still killed a lot of them"

"Are you trying to make me feel guilty ?"

The dragon looked away "How did you even lose your equipment ? An accident just like on Tallon IV ?"

Now the hunter looked away "It was stolen"

Stolen ... the pirates spent years trying to obtain her equipment, and now she just announced someone else managed to take her equipment ?

"You are lying"

"I am not"

"You just wanted to use that thing to kill me did you ?"

"Think about it, what you just say doesn't make sense. If I had my Super Missile of course I would have used it against that creature and then you"

"Well, then I guess you really are defenseless"

Samus had no means to defeat Ridley right now, even if he was slightly injured she couldn't take the risk to engage a fight at the moment, she noticed an elevator right behind the dragon.

"But tell me, who exactly managed to take your equipment"

"The ings, they are the other inhabitants of this planet, I suppose you noticed the bodies, they are-"

"Luminoth I met one of them"

"You killed him ?"

"Why would I ? As far as I know he isn't hostile, beside he was the one to tell me your location"

"Did he ?" U-Mos was a traitor ? No, he probably didn't know who Ridley really was "Did he explain the situation ?"

"Talked about a war, I didn't care at this moment but if it's linked to those Ings you mentioned then I'm interested"

He was just interested by her weapons, he didn't killed Samus yet because he still needed her help or rather her informations

Hesitantly she started to explain "Phazon managed to reach this planet, there was a catastrophe and Aether was divided in two dimensions, the Ings appeared in this new dimension, they are VERY hostile, they are the ones who took my equipment, so far I managed to take back parts of it"

"The Ings uh ? ... so what, they can't be so dangerous, I haven't encountered any so far"

"Trust me, they are way more dangerous than the thing we just defeated, theybare trying to steal the energy of this planet, the luminoth created some sort of network with they energy reactor, the Ings are using it to keep the other dimension stable, once they have all of it, they will attack other planets"

Ridley didn't react.

"Alright, let's make a deal, I'll help you and this illuminated up there, once it's done I guess you know what to do"

"And why should I trust you ?"

"I could have killed you since this ... whatever it was, died" Ridley crossed his arms "So ? What do you say hunter ?"

Samus lowered her weapon "Fine, but promise me you won't try to turn the Ings into some sort of weapon, I'm sure you already understood that you couldn't control the metroids"

"Whatever, what do we do now ?"

"We are looking for a way to access the energy controller in the other dimension, we need some keys to reach it, the Ings dispersed them in Dark Aether"

"Dark Aether, that's how you call it, the other dimension ?"

"Yes ... any problem with that ?"

"No, and how do we do this ?"

"Your pirates found a rift, there seems to be a lot of those all around the planet, I saw a squadron get through but I'm afraid they didn't come back"

"Oh ... well let's go, lead the way Aran"

Samus went to the elevator, Ridley didn't let her get away, he was following her every move. She went to the arsenal she detected before coming to the pirate base.

"What's this ?" Asked the dragon.

"The pirates found experimental weapons created by the luminoth, I came here to retrieve it, it could be useful"

Ridley could barely fit inside the room, so instead he waited for Samus to take her new weapon, it was called the "Dark Beam"

Mission time : 00.00.20

"I just need to hack it and-"

"There is no need, I have access to all the equipment" Rildey pushed Samus away and interacted with the panel, after a few seconds nothing happened "Something must be broken ... let's-" Samus was raising her weapon "what do you think you are doing ?"

"You don't trust me ? If this beam uses the same energy than the rift then I might be able to trigger it"

"... fine, but Ladies first, apparently you like to kick your foot in the hive"

"Shut up would you? It's already annoying enough to collaborate with you so don't bring up your sarcasm"

The dragon took a step back so Samus could shoot at the rift, upon entering in contact with the rift the shot disappeared and the rift changed, it turned into a sphere.

"Ladies fi-" before he could add anything Samus was already walking through the rift "Well here I go"

Mission time : ERROR

Samus reached the other side before Ridley and one thing was sure, the Ings or the atmosphere itself had already sealed with the pirates.

Ridley arrived about ten seconds after her, he immediately noticed the bodies.

"A full squadron ... were they trying to escape ?"

"Let me see..." Samus started to analyse the bodies "symbiotic attemp, the first method of attack of the Ings, they weren't prepared"

"Symbiotic attempt ? What is that supposed to mean ?"

"They can invade the body of a living creature and use it as a puppet, but they can also make the creature stranger. If you went to the temple then I suppose you saw the bodies right ?"

"Yes I did"

"The Ings can enter into this universe if they are close enough from an host, in that case they used a colony of splinter to kill me"

"They didn't look so strong, why even attempt to kill you ? You weren't a threat at this moment"

"The Ings tried to protect a luminoth technology allowing the user to transfer the energy of a controller to another"

"I see ..." Ridley saw the "shield" around them, he tried to move his hand outside and he immediately felt a strong irritation "what the-"

"The atmosphere is dangerous, be careful if you go through ... are you well protected ?"

"It's almost like you care about me, yes I am, and you ?"

"Same here ... let's see ... look !" Samus pointed at a floating red object "it must be one of the key to access-" right as Samus was explaining a black mass of goo absorbed the key and left.

"What was that ?" Asked Ridley.

"An Ing, they can morph into a liquid to move around, It stole the key"

"Then let's follow it" Ridley took a step out of the shield and almost immediately he felt really weakened he reached the next one as fast as he could.

"Are you sure you can do it ?"

"Shut up ! I could do this all alone of I wanted !"

"... if you wanted ?"

"YES ! THE ONLY REASON I'M WORKING WITH YOU IS BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT ANOTHER ACCIDENT LINKED TO THIS DARN PHAZON !"

"At least you aren't completely selfish"

"Selfish ? Care to explain hunter ?"

"I thought you were only interested by my equipment"

"Your equipment ? The fact that those creatures managed to get their hands on it just show how dangerous they are, that's all ... NOW MOVE ! I do not want to stay here any-"

Ridley stopped, he was looking behind Samus "Where is the rift ?"

Samus turned around too, indeed they had no way back.

"Do not tell me we are stuck here !"

"We aren't, the luminoth created some sort of portal to directly access Dark Aether, I used one to get here the first time, we just have to find it"

"At least one good new" Samus followed Ridley toward the position where they saw the Ing run away with the key, the way was blocked by a white door.

Ridley tried to open it but none of his weapons worked "that's odd ... some sort of shield ? For a door ? IN THIS PLACE ?!"

"Calm down, there must be another way, and the luminoth probably made a weapon or a key capable of opening it ... wait, can you fly ?"

"Not here, it's too dangerous, and I do not want to end up like my ship"

"You got struck by the storm ?"

"I did, a chance I only ended up near a cliff and not in the forest downward"